Benchmarking e‐government policy within the e‐Europe programme

Purpose – The paper aims to provide a benchmark study of the European Union (EU) e‐government policy within the e‐Europe programme. The main objective of the European strategy for the development of e‐government was that the member states should ensure “online public services”. To monitor this policy the European Commission defined two indicators. Design/methodology/approach – The European Commission developed a list of 20 basic public services. The Commission and Capgemini defined a framework to evaluate the online availability of each of the services in each of the EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. Findings – The study finds that since 2001 a considerable improvement in online public service provision was measured, even so the 2004 result of 65 per cent online sophistication of public service delivery in the EU still shows an important gap with the 100 per cent objective, the result was considered a positive. When considering the different types of public services, income generating services including income tax, VAT and corporate tax are by far the most developed online. The new member countries seem to be only two years behind in the development of online public service. The most advanced countries exceed 80 per cent but seem to evolve to a “plateau”. They have developed their most feasible services, demanding less effort, now only the “hard” ones are undeveloped, mostly services delivered at a decentralised level. Research limitations/implications – The study provides information on the online development of public services, i.e. the provision and interactivity of public services through the internet. It does not analyse the provision of services through other channels, neither the quality of the service delivery, nor the use or impact of these new ways of public service supply. Therefore a new EU e‐government measurement system must change the focus from “availability” of e‐government services, to “use” and desired positive “impact” of e‐government programmes. Originality/value – This study provides the only available data measured scientifically over a longer period concerning the development of e‐government in the EU.